Chapter 1

A.D. 2013

"What do you make of this, Bill?" Sanjay asked, wearing a strange expression.

"I can't say for sure," Bill replied, studying the series of photos displayed on the large computer screen. "Where are these from?"

"Catalina," Sanjay answered. "The top set was last night; the bottom set just came in. I'm still waiting for results from Siding Spring, in Australia, but I've tentatively labeled them PHAs."

"It looks like a cluster of large objects coming in from out system," Bill said, distracted. "They would have to be moving at a pretty good clip to come that far in twenty four hours, so I can see your logic in labeling them as Potentially Hazardous Asteroids. Have you passed this up to the Minor Planet Center?"

"Yes, but you know how fast those guys at the MPC work. They won't be expecting any impacts for the next few centuries, so they'll take their time about analyzing the data."

"Well, we have guys over at Mt. Lemmon that can do some of the analysis." Bill said, still studying the pictures.

"That's what I thought," Sanjay said, "but look at this. I sent the data over to Mt. Lemmon, and they sent me this back..."

A computer graphic replaced the series of photos. It showed a curved line from the current position of the newly discovered bodies, just above the solar system's plane, leading unerringly to Earth, or at least where Earth would be three days from now. He touched another key and the view zoomed in, showing the new bodies transitioning smoothly into a polar orbit around the planet.

"They're decelerating?" Bill exclaimed.

"Looks that way," Sanjay said, trying not to look too smug.

"But, do you realize what this means? Have you contacted SETI? We'd better notify the military as well! We've got to get on the horn with Australia! Can they confirm... ? My God, man! You, my best buddy, friend for life, have just discovered extraterrestrial life! You, pal, are the discoverer of intelligent life from outside the Solar System!"

"Get a grip on yourself, Bill," Sanjay said, laughing. "First of all, we have just discovered ET, not me. Or at least we will have by the time you check my data and confirm my calculations."

"But, wait a minute. Did the guys over at Lemmon go back over previous photos to see if they could track them coming in?"

"Yep. These are, as near as we can tell, the first images of these objects, meaning they just appeared," Sanjay pulled up another display, "and the guys working the Sub Millimeter Array on Mauna Kea reported this burst just moments before they appeared, independent of what we're seeing."

"So what are you saying?" Bill asked, his pulse racing. "Are you implying that these guys came out of hyper-space or something?"

"I'm not saying anything," Sanjay answered, trying to keep his expression neutral. "I'm just reporting my observations."

"What have you got, Sandy?" Dr. Sobieski looked as though he had just gotten out of bed, but then he always looked that way.

"It's something the folks over at CSS sent over," Sandy replied with a slight shake of his head, as if he couldn't quite believe what he was seeing.

"Catalina Sky Surveys, in Tucson?" Sobieski looked puzzled. "They sent it directly? It didn't come through the MPC?"

"Yeah," Sandy answered. "They've discovered a whole group of bodies that, from all appearances, just appeared from nowhere, going like bats out of hell, straight for Earth, and decelerating like they intend to go into orbit."

"Decelerating?" Sobieski's sleepy eyes were suddenly wide and alert. "You're sure they're not just getting some sort of gravitational effect from one of the planets, or the sun?"

"Not likely," Sandy replied, "they're coming in from above the plane of the ecliptic."

"Holy... ! But how big are these things?"

"At least five kilometers across," Sandy replied, "It's hard to get anything definitive on the size, because they are almost as irregular as asteroids, but their surface reflectivity seems to shift. We can't get any definitive spectral analyses because of that, either."

"Have we tried opening communications?"

"Everything we've got," Sandy shrugged. "They're still several light minutes away, but they should have had time to reply if they're going to."

"Has the military been notified?"

"The CSS guys already notified them, and we're in communication with them as well, but so far we have nothing to add to what the guys in Arizona told them."

The control room was, for a change, abuzz with activity. The once boring mission of keeping watch over the Air Force's defense satellites had suddenly gotten exciting.

"Sir, that's going to expend quite a bit of the remaining fuel for the attitude jets," one of the technicians responded when the order was given to re-aim certain cameras.

"I'm well aware of that, son," Colonel Hardesty answered, wishing the damn technicians were military. He wouldn't have to repeat himself to people trained to take orders. "Just do as you're told."

High above Earth's atmosphere, attitude jets on four satellites fired, spinning them on their axes. At precisely the right moment, those jets fired again, stopping the spin. Camera lenses which were normally trained on Earth's surface now scanned the blackness of space, locking onto a single point in the night sky.

Digital pulses caused CCD arrays to send their images to temporary memory storage which was then read, encoded, and sent back to Earth. Then, simultaneously, all four streams of images stopped.

"Sir!" one of the technicians almost shouted. "The satellites have gone dead!"

Colonel Hardesty, who, with no control duties to attend to had been studying the stream of images, already knew why.

The White House was even busier than usual. It wasn't every President who got to host a reception for a newly crowned King of England. The entire staff was busy with final touches on the decorations, laying out hors d'oeuvres and opening bottles of expensive champagne.

The President and First Lady, too, were busy with final preparations.

Celeste straightened the bowtie and gave him one last critical inspection before passing his attire with the barest of nods.

Martin Wang, seeing his wife clad in the expensive designer gown, thought about how lucky he was. Even after two children, Celeste was a striking woman. The few marks left on her face by the ravages of time served only to enhance its character.

"Come along, dear," He said affectionately, taking her arm in his, "Wouldn't want to keep King Charles waiting, now, would we?"