Page 30 - Tales Apocalyptic and Dystopian

Comet Klenzer

asteroids. There I saw a departing comet glowing faintly against the
background of fixed stars. After consulting the charts, I realized it
had to be my comet, heading for the outer reaches of solar influence,
a visitor not expected again for fifty-three years. The next day I
recalculated its orbit. To my amazement it had changed. Something
had perturbed it, perhaps a concentration of dark matter in the region
of the asteroids. I ran the numbers again and, to make a long story
short, concluded that the comet would now return in the year 2000
and make a direct hit on our planet.”
Reverend Blood gasped and blinked, the dawn of comprehension
blinding the virgin retina of his rationality.
“But—but, how can that be? There was nothing on television
about that!”
“It was my assistants. I had entrusted the crucial evidence, the
photographic plates, to their safekeeping for them to review my
findings while I went to the chairman of the department. Of course I
was very excited, and tried to get his support for further research. I
knew that going public would cause a panic, and I needed guidance
from a wiser, more experienced person. He looked at me as though I
were mad, and then asked me to produce the data. I ran off to fetch
the plates; my scribbled computations meant nothing. To my shock
and horror the butter-fingered fools had managed to drop them in
the hall of the physics building. They smashed into a million glass
splinters. I had nothing but the original photos, which showed only
the original orbit. My desperation made me into a madman, banging
on doors, buttonholing colleagues, screaming into telephones after I
had been disconnected. My story was too unbelievable, and the
comet had gone beyond the range of optical instruments. Nobody
wanted to hear that an event possibly on the scale of the cataclysm
which ended the Cretaceous period—Nemesis, the ‘doomsday
asteroid’ whose impact resulted in mass extinctions, including the
dinosaurs—was going to happen in twelve years. My employment
was terminated, and no university in the country would give me
another job.”
“And that—that is why you—”
“Yes, Reverend Blood. That is why I became Brother Daniel. I am
trying to raise several hundred million dollars to prepare for the
worst.”

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