Page 29 - Tales Apocalyptic and Dystopian

Comet Klenzer

“Do you really want to start a war with me, Reverend Blood? Why
not join up with me instead? Together we could really get the
message across.”
Blood snorted. “Message? You? What would I possibly want with
an apostate atheist like you?”
Klenzer smiled, revealing capped teeth. “Did you find out why I
had to leave the university?”
“Well, I suppose it’s in the report somewhere. I know you were
caught with your mitt in the wringer—hanky-panky with a co-ed or
embezzlement of college funds.”
“Not at all. That would be more typical of your colleagues than
mine.”
Klenzer leaned forward. Illumination from an ornate desk lamp
picked up copper highlights in his immaculately-lacquered coiffure
and glinted off his diamond cufflinks. Altogether less prepossessing
an Old Testament prophet than his adversary, Brother Daniel
nevertheless radiated intellectual honesty and calm seriousness of
purpose.
“It is no secret that Daniel Klenzer discovered a comet soon
before it crossed the orbit of Saturn, about seven years ago. I was
assisted by some rather clumsy graduate students, to whom I
entrusted most of the photographic and mathematical routine. That
was a big mistake. Many comets are identified every year; most of
them are not large enough to see without a telescope, and they do not
capture the public’s attention. They come and go in totally
predictable elliptical orbits with the sun as a focus. Their nuclei are
primarily frozen gases, their tails and comas visible only when they
are within a certain range of the sun. If you observe a comet’s
movement over a brief span of time, you can calculate precisely
where and when it will cross the ecliptic plane—that is, the plane
described by the earth’s orbit—for the next million years.”
“All well and good, and no big deal for a struggling young
academic; my attention was primarily on teaching and publishing
research on my chosen field of study, the asteroid belt beyond Mars.
The comet was documented and registered. Its orbit would bring it
nowhere near the earth or any other massive body in our solar
system. I forgot about it until a few weeks later when I was scanning
some plates I had taken through the university’s telescope of the

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