Snippet from Brother Dearest (1950’s book)
*.*.*
“Mr President,” one of the two men in tweed suits clearly loaned to the pair least likely to ever be shown to the Oval Office let alone the lobby outside the Press Room, of the White House for a meeting with Truman himself shot out his hand to be shaken. Fully breaking the etiquette rules that had been shared with the pair that had the Secretary on call shake her head and roll her eyes on the way out of the room at Truman’s personal thanks to her.
“Thank you, Mary,” and he addressed the man whose hand he shook afterwards openly to welcome whatever news the pair was here to shed light on for his sake. “Hello, Mr Bolt,” they traded nods of their heads and Truman accepted the hand of the second man freshly dropped after fidgeting with the poorly colored tie before the President glanced his way. “Mr Hinge, how might I be of assistance boys?” Their hands released and Truman continued in a gesture of the same hand towards the chairs opposite the desk Truman moved to lean against so he wouldn’t make them more nervous by placing the desk between them and making himself a kind of principal being called in to speak to for a meeting with a thick ruler or a switch.
Hinge spoke first this time as Bolt fumbled inside the messenger bag laid atop his lap, “We located something out in the Kuiper Belt, best to know about it now, Mr President.”
Truman flatly responded, “If this has anything to do with the Flora Colossus I have no inclination to humor harm issued by them.”
”No!” They both shook their heads animatedly and Truman’s brows furrowed in perplexity.
”Then what could it be you have to show me?” Truman asked.
Bolt clarified in an offer of a printout of schematics of a pathway of a planetary body, “Not even in the same direction, well across the solar system but in the Kuiper Belt’s orbital path.” Hinge cut in to clarify that point, “Or rather, where Pluto will be in 29 years, Pluto takes 258 years to orbit the sun. Just over 4.67 billion miles away.”
Truman nodded and asked them, his eyes darting from one of the other briefly, “What is all this?” He asked and let out a wry chuckle at the sheet of formulas and numbers of compiled data hard to understand at first glance to one ignorant of its meanings. “I am not the one to put formulas to test. Have a whole team for that to simplify it all for me to pass on to the public.”
”Well,” Bolt continued, “There’s an asteroid in the Kuiper Belt, aimed at Earth.”
That had Truman ease back to lean against his desk, “How big?” He asked, “We had some space rocks size of a football come down in a lake by my childhood house when I was little, I know we get space rocks aimed at us and we’re still here moving on about our lives.” The hopeful tone in his voice only compounded the seriousness and dread of the other two in being chosen to pass on this bit of knowledge.
”Bigger than Texas,” Hinge answered and Truman let out a disbelieving scoff and lifted the paper to ogle the information on it that was no more helpful at that news.
“You said it’s a billion-?” His voice faded off and Bolt repeated the distance. “4.67 billion miles.” Truman nodded at that and said for himself, “How long would it take to get here? Pluto takes over two centuries to go around the sun, how long do we have?”
”Well, sir,” Bolt began and Hinge finished for him after checking his notes again, “6 years, 43 weeks and 3 days, if it is traveling the usual rate of 78,000 miles we’ve clocked asteroids at moving on average through space.”
And Truman let out a puff of air, “So not immediate,” he said but was more clarifying the fact for himself than to either of them.
Bolt answered, “If it goes that speed, yes. We’ve consulted Albert Einstein on his theories on space, odd thing is, normally sir, Mr President, we’d have spotted its tail by now, at some angle, only, it seems while we are rotating on our axis and orbiting the Sun, it’s still aimed right at us.”
”What does that mean?” Truman asked and they both shook their heads.
Hinge answered next, “We don’t know. Space follows finite rules, space seems to not be following those rules when it comes to this asteroid.” Bolt cut in to add hopefully, “But Einstein has been working off Princess Bunny’s solar mapping formula to help us understand what we might be missing.” Hinge forced out a chuckle that had Bolt force a grin as the former spoke, “Because we have to be missing something. All the way out there, can’t rightly have all the answers now can we?”
Bolt nodded and said, “But we do have time, over six years if it keeps on time.”
Truman took a moment of pause and said, “I want you to keep tabs on this I have to set up a plan. Not just for me but whoever takes office next. I want all the information and a list of experts on, oh,” he got off the desk to go around it and lift the phone to call his Secretary, “Mary, I need you to get me the head of our space teams and Secretary of Defense and my Vice President. Not on the phone, in the Oval Office, I don’t care what they’re up to I need them here right away!” He spoke again to the pair in settling the receiver back down again post thanks to the diligent woman on the other end. “I need you two to not spare a single detail so that I can understand every inch of this paper. If I can I will be on the phone with Queen Puifini next to try and cut a deal of peace with Ireland after the Pluto fossil fiasco.”
Team Shadow Operation was underway by nightfall and a second date to be given updated information on the danger was booked for the 19th, seven days from now. Six years in terms of a Presidency would only fall within a follow up term for any novice President, and into his own third term Truman knew he couldn’t possibly run a third time to win a fourth term. So he had to ready a plan into action now and detail to the nth degree so the next guy in office would have a fighting chance against whatever came this way.
Sure he could always be called upon to be consulted by the next man to take up his office. But for now he would take on the brunt of the grunt work in this. And if at all possible he might gain one of those Irish space ships and rekindle the aid lost in the damage of the fossil from Pluto.
Just maybe he could get the Irish Queen or Princess Bunny at the very least to speak up on behalf of sharing information to work together in defending the planet and its people. If he was very lucky he could maneuver the US into good terms with Ireland’s space exploration efforts and gain the greatest ally possible in this fight.
