The Last Sunrise

[mild cussing]

Marchella was nervous. She was about to brief the president, the cabinet, and a lot of people in the room, whom she had only seen on television. But this was her project.

She looked out the window of the limo sent to pick her up from the airport on the military base when she landed in the private aircraft sent to collect her for this briefing. The rising sun was astonishing at the moment.

Marchella Romano is a solar specialist; she adores the sun, our closest star, and often wonders what they call our star when viewed from another planet, as just a point of light. She stared at the rising sun from her seat, thankful that the window was very dark. She was able to see the ball, as she called it. The orange ball that was the sun. She stared at it intently, knowing what she needed to tell those in the room shortly, knowing they would not want to hear it.

For more than a year, she and her team have been tracking an extraterrestrial object heading towards Earth. They sent a probe, and it landed successfully. She classified the discovery above anything else on the planet, and the president passed the information to NATO and a few friendly nations.

“Miss Romano, please come with me.”

An aide found her sitting in the hall and walked her to the room. As she entered, everyone looked at her.

Marchella Romano was from the East Side of Cleveland and attended several universities, earning a doctorate in astronomical physics, working at several locations around the world, and landing at NASA.

Her team is there to locate objects that can be a danger to Earth, and she found one.

As she entered the room, she stood near the door, waiting to be introduced. The vice president stood and said, “Ladies and gentlemen. “We have horrible news to deliver, and to tell you about it and answer any questions.” He waved a hand toward Marchella. “Is Marchella Romano. Lead Astrophysicist at NASA.”

He took his seat, and Marchella walked to the front. She had no briefcase, no slides to flip through, just words.

“Madame President, what I have to tell you is dire, has no resolution, and will decimate our planet.”

The president raised a hand.

“Miss Romano,” The president said.

Marchella added, “Call me Mar, please.”

The president smiled, “OK, Mar. Please define the destruction.”

“Give me just a moment to lead into that, and you will understand.”

She collected her thoughts.

“More than a year ago, closer to two years now, we found an asteroid inbound to our solar system. We called it E-16-2033. We first identified it on January 16. The 16th day of the year.” She smiled, almost telling this group that 16 represents the Julian date of the discovery, and the year is the year. “We watched it carefully and tracked it, extrapolating its flight path. Calculations told us the Earth and E-16 will meet in a close fly-by, between the Earth and the Moon.”

The vice president said, “So, that’s good, right?”

She shook her head. “I can answer that with a yes, and a no.” She physically resettled behind the podium.

Marchella stood 6 feet 2 inches tall and was a beautiful woman. Her hair was dark, almost black, with the tell-tale signs of how many revolutions around the sun she had made. Lighter strands said to those in the room she had the mileage to know what she was talking about.

“Mr. Vice President, in a few days, the asteroid will pass between the Earth and the Moon cleanly. We estimate that it is roughly 51,000 miles from the lunar surface as it passes. From there, it will head toward the sun, slightly to the left as we view it. As it approaches the sun, its speed will increase from the leisurely 11 miles per minute, or 600 miles per hour, to nearly 200,000 miles per hour as it passes between the sun and the planet Mercury, performing, as we call it, a slingshot around the sun.”

The faces in the room look astonished. But they still did not fully understand.

Marchella continued.

“The speed at which it will leave its solar orbit will take it back to the Earth. Less than a month after it passes between the Earth and the Moon, it will return and strike the Earth with a devastating glancing blow. There will be no survivors.”

A full minute passed, and one of the generals said, “Let’s nuke the bastard as it passes by the first time!”

“General,” Marchella said, “The asteroid is roughly 20 miles in diameter, solid iron and other heavy elements, and unless you were able to hit the same spot with multiple, sequential, massive rockets and high-yield special weapons, all you would succeed in accomplishing is making space radioactive. This is not a movie, this is reality.”

“Mar, what can we do?” The president said.

“Madame president. I plan to take the next month off. Travel, spend time with family and friends. My plan is simple. I will be pulling my 401k out and putting it into my checking account and going to see and do everything I ever wanted to see or do.”

Mr. Williams stood. “This is bullshit. You have no fucking idea what you are talking about. Are you telling us that a rock is going to hit the Earth in a month and everyone on the planet is going to die?”

“Yes, sir.”

“That’s it. Yes, sir. No explanation of why you cannot fix this issue?”

“No, sir.”

“This is bullshit. We need a new science team to…. To science the shit out of this and save the planet.”

The president smiled at Marchella and said, “Mr. Williams. Perhaps we can get Bruce Willis’ team to fly a couple of space shuttles to the asteroid, drill a hole ten miles into the core, plant the biggest nuke the universe has ever seen, and detonate it on the other side of the sun. Can you please arrange that for us?”

Mr. Williams sat down, “This is bullshit.”

The president turned to Marchella, “Mar, what are your recommendations?”

“Simple. We do nothing. We tell no one. We go on as if business is usual. Let people go about their lives as if there will be a tomorrow. When it happens, it will happen very fast. The asteroid will look like a comet, at least in terms of speed. Once it hits the Earth, the planet will be ripped to shreds in seconds, and we may end up as a ring around the Moon.”

The room erupted.

Marchella said, “People, please, be quiet a moment, and I will explain. In a few days, we will be ringside as the asteroid passes by, and the science community will, at that moment, figure out what we already know. We have not told anyone about E-16 and do not plan on giving the science community advance notice. Once they calculate the path, they will also know what we know, and some people will post it, some will go on TV, and others will do what my team and I have already done.”

Mr. Williams said with sarcasm, anger, and contempt, “AND WHAT IS THAT?”

“We accepted the fact that in roughly a month, we would be dead.”

The room was dead silent.

Marchella spent the entire day in that room, and as she left, just before sunset, she sat back in the car again, choosing the opposite side for a great view of the sunset.

When she arrived home a few hours later, she told her husband they were going on vacation. Where did not matter, but she wanted to see a sunrise and a sunset from as many places as possible over the next month or so.

26 days later, she received a call.

“Hello?”

“Hi, Mar. Just called to say goodbye.”

“I know. Just a few hours to go.”

“Does the rest of the world have a clue?”

He said, “Not really. Lots of rumors and conspiracy theories. But no real science. Where are you?” Her teammate asked.

“I am at 38° 11 minutes North by 15° 33 minutes East.”

Tim gasped, “That is ground zero.”

Marchella laughed, “I know. But I really had eating pasta con le sarde and caponata with arancini and cannoli for dessert on my bucket list.”

“How was it?”

“Better than I hoped.”

“Did you manage a sunrise and sunset each day?”

“I did. I am taking them with me.”

They were silent for a moment.

Tim said, “You always said you wanted to touch an asteroid.”

“I guess I’ll get my wish.” She paused, “It will touch me.”

“What’s that noise?”

“Sunrise. I see it. Goodbye, Tim.”

“Goodbye, Mar.”

They hung up. Resolved to the idea a few months ago that their time on the planet had a definite expiration date. Marchella stood on the shore, shoes off, in the water, watching as the asteroid that began its journey millions of years ago culminated in this event. The extinction of humanity.

As she watched the rock approach, seemingly pointing itself directly at her, she raised her arm toward it. A closed fist pointed at the incoming grim reaper. In the last few seconds, she raised her middle finger.

She yelled, “It was a spectacular sunrise this morning, my last last sunrise.”